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16 V. City Hall <br />2014 Annual Report · Administration · St. Anthony Village, Minnesota <br />Students in the Designing Planning and Participation Processes in the <br />Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota <br />developed two proposals for the community engagement initiative. <br />The students in this course were primarily graduate level students <br />in the Master of Urban and Regional Planning program, and thus <br />have strong knowledge of community engagement strategies and <br />practices. The project was built into an existing assignment that <br />requires student teams to design participation processes in response <br />to a mock Request for Proposals (RFP). A mock RFP was developed <br />around this project, giving students the opportunity to gain familiarity <br />with RFP content and experience in responding to community <br />aspirations and expectations expressed in these kinds of documents. <br />The students produced 20-30 page proposals for the community <br />engagement initiative, outlining tasks, activities, and timelines. <br />They also addressed approaches to promotion, recruitment, and <br />communication. The fi nal proposals were organized as professional <br />documents that have effective content tailored to St. Anthony Village <br />and quality design and layout. <br />ELECTIONS <br />Online Voter Registration <br />The Minnesota Secretary of State’s offi ce rolled out a new “online <br />voter registration” in 2014. This module would allow eligible voters to <br />apply to register to vote or update a registration to a new address or <br />name through a secure internet site. <br />To register, the voter needed to complete a voter registration <br />application online. The voter must provide a Minnesota state driver’s <br />license number, state ID card number or the last four digits of their <br />Social Security number and an email address. If the voter couldn’t <br />supply these items, they could not apply online but were still able to <br />submit a paper application. <br />With any online activity, security is always an issue. The online voter <br />registration system was built with security as a top priority. This new system used the same technology that <br />banks and retailers use to encrypt and protect a customer’s personal information. <br />If the potential voter provided a Minnesota driver’s license or state ID card number, the information provided was <br />verifi ed with data from the state’s Drivers and Vehicle Services. If the voter provided the last four digits of their <br />Social Security number, their application was verifi ed with data from the Social Security Administration. <br />After all the information has been verifi ed and accepted the potential voter was sent a confi rmation email <br />informing the potential voter that their application was successfully processed. <br />It is hard to determine the exact amount of St. Anthony voters that utilized the online registration, but in 2014 <br />we had 382 total Election Day Registration and comparing that to the last midterm Election in 2010 which <br />had a total of 477. This is down 95 registrations. Staff estimates with Online Voter Registration Election Day <br />registration will continue to decline.